How to configure watch directory from config.yaml, CLI or Bash script?

[a-t-0]

Thank you for your marvellous work on Tribler! While trying to configure Tribler with a Bash script, I experienced some difficulties finding where the configurations are stored.

To find where the configurations are stored, I tried to set a recognisable directory watch folder name, like recognisable_watch_folder_name and then searching through the contents of the files in/home/username/ to see if I find that setting, such that I can modify it from a bash script.

However, since I was not able to run a stable release of 7.11 on Ubuntu, I downloaded this `.deb file to run Tribler. That version 7.12.0-alpha.4-3 crashes if I go into settings and click a directory (e.g. the watch folder) on my instance of Ubuntu 22.04.

Hence, I would like to ask (either):

0. How can I set the watch folder to be: /home/username/watchfolder from the command line or a bash script?
1. Is the watch folder usage boolean, and watch folder directory setting stored in some config.yaml file, and if yes, where?
2. Is there perhaps an CLI API that allows for specifying the Tribler watch folder?

[a-t-0]

Approach I

I first inspected the command line arguments for Tribler. However, I did not find a setting for the watch folder. Next I searched the repository for "watch folder".

Searching Watch Folder Setting

After inspecting the Tribler source code I think I found the boolean that determines whether or not Tribler monitors a watch folder at /src/tribler/core/components/watch_folder/settings.py
Along with the string for the watch directory in line 8 of that file:

from tribler.core.config.tribler_config_section import TriblerConfigSection

# pylint: disable=no-self-argument


class WatchFolderSettings(TriblerConfigSection):
    enabled: bool = False
    directory: str = ''

Changing Watch Folder Setting

I am not yet sure how to find that file when Tribler is installed using:

wget https://jenkins-ci.tribler.org/job/Build-Tribler_release/job/Build-Ubuntu64/522/artifact/tribler/build/debian/tribler_7.12.0-alpha.4-3-g0fb222e62_all.deb
    sudo dpkg -i tribler_7.12.0-alpha.4-3-g0fb222e62_all.deb

However, I will look into it.

Approach II (successful)

The error I described when clicking on the folder icon in Settings>General>Watch Folder emerged only upon clicking the icon. So instead I copy pasted the textbox and clicked save in the top right of the settings. That did work. Next, I was able to search the directory /home/username/ for any file with content: recognisable_watch_folder_name. That returned the file: /home/username/.Tribler/7.12/triblerd.conf which contained:

[watch_folder]
    enabled = True
    directory = /home/username/recognisable_watch_folder_name
[api]
    http_enabled = True
    http_port = some port
    key = some key

Solution

So I think I would be able to pre-pend this:

[watch_folder]
    enabled = True
    directory = /home/username/recognisable_watch_folder_name
[api]

to the /home/username/.Tribler/7.12/triblerd.conf file. I did not yet write a script that finds that file automatically regardless of the version and prepends that data.

[drew2a]

Hi!

How can I set the watch folder to be: /home/username/watchfolder from the command line or a bash script?

You have to add the following lines to the triblerd.conf file:

[watch_folder]
    enabled = True
    directory =  /home/username/watchfolder 

Is the watch folder usage boolean, and watch folder directory setting stored in some config.yaml file, and if yes, where?

We use an ini-like config file that is stored in ~/.Tribler/<TRIBLER_VERSION>/triblerd.conf where TRIBLER_VERSION is Tribler version, like 7.11 or 7.12.

Is there perhaps an CLI API that allows for specifying the Tribler watch folder?

There is no special CLI API but you can use Tribler's REST API

Still, the easiest way to change the config is to modify directly triblerd.conf.

The full specification of the config is here:

tribler/src/tribler/core/config/tribler_config.py

Lines 34 to 56 in d9c44f2

	class TriblerConfig(BaseSettings):
	""" Tribler config class that contains common logic for manipulating with a config."""
	class Config:
	extra = Extra.ignore # ignore extra attributes during model initialization
	general: GeneralSettings = GeneralSettings()
	tunnel_community: TunnelCommunitySettings = TunnelCommunitySettings()
	bandwidth_accounting: BandwidthAccountingSettings = BandwidthAccountingSettings()
	bootstrap: BootstrapSettings = BootstrapSettings()
	ipv8: Ipv8Settings = Ipv8Settings()
	discovery_community: DiscoveryCommunitySettings = DiscoveryCommunitySettings()
	dht: DHTSettings = DHTSettings()
	trustchain: TrustchainSettings = TrustchainSettings()
	watch_folder: WatchFolderSettings = WatchFolderSettings()
	chant: ChantSettings = ChantSettings()
	torrent_checking: TorrentCheckerSettings = TorrentCheckerSettings()
	libtorrent: LibtorrentSettings = LibtorrentSettings()
	download_defaults: DownloadDefaultsSettings = DownloadDefaultsSettings()
	api: APISettings = APISettings()
	resource_monitor: ResourceMonitorSettings = ResourceMonitorSettings()
	popularity_community: PopularityCommunitySettings = PopularityCommunitySettings()
	remote_query_community: RemoteQueryCommunitySettings = RemoteQueryCommunitySettings()

[a-t-0]

Thank you for your detailed solution, it was a cross-post where you beat me to the party! I also appreciate your reference to the Tribler REST API.